SOME PADEREWSKI STORIES. (T. P's Weekly.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 77

SOME PADEREWSKI STORIES. (T. P's Weekly.)

All lovers of music will be glad to see Mr Edward Algernon Baugh&n's "Ignaz Ja.n Paderewski" (2s. 6d. not) added to Mr John Lane's "Living Masters of Music" series. The general public, too, will find in this volume general interest, and even amusement, fcr ,the great Polish pianist is essentially an anecdotal personality. Long before he was able to play the child Ifjnaz is said to have clambered on to a piano-stool and to have attempted to produce a beautiful tone. "Of the ordinary early tuition," writes Mr Baughen, "he appears to have had none, his mother having died when he was a child. A travelling fiddler gave the boy a few lessons on the piano, but it may be imagined th-.it they were not of a very complete kind. Later on an old teacher of the instrument was engaged to pay a monthly visit to the- farm, and he taught the boy and his sister to play simple arrangements of operatic airs. This early life spent away from strong musical influences saved Paderewski from the usual prodigy period in the career of a pianist." — Chords and Whip. — He was sixteen when he made his first public appearance. He was at that time rather a composer who played his own music. Of his first tour his pupil, M-'ss Szumows a, relates that on one occasion Padcrevvoki "had announced a concert at a certain small town, but, on arriving, found that no piano was to be had for love or money. The general wa3 perfectly willing, on being applied to, to lend his instrument ; but when the- pianist tried it he found, to his dismay, that it was so badly out of repair that some of the hammers would stick to the &tr ; ngs insU-ad of falling back. However, it was too late to back out. The audience was assembling, and in this emergency a bright thought occurred to the pianist. He sent for a switch, and engaged an attendant to whip down the refractory hammers whenever necessary. So bang went the rhorcls and swish went the whip, and the audience liked this improvised duo more, perhaps, than it would have enjoyed the promised piano solo." — Mme. Modjeska. — Pathetic stories have been told as to how his wife's death gave Paderewski the impetus that made him a great pianist. He himself however, has disclaimed this romantic impetus,. "I was a profe^or," he I ells us, "at the Warsaw Conservatoire, and I had to work awfully hard. Previous to this I had made a concert tour in Russia. In \\ arsaw I gave lessons from morning to night. It was not interesting. In act, it was slavery. One day I asked myself why I followed such an arduous profession, and so I decided to go to Leschetitzky, in Vienna, and become a performer, since in that way I should work hard a few years and afterwards have a life of ease, 1o be idle, or devote myself to composition, as I pleased." Paderewski, however, paid a visit to Berlin before going to Vienna. At the age of twenty-three he became professor of music at" Strasbourg. It was during a vacation that he first met the famous Polish actress. Mme. Modjeska. who was the first to recognise hia fteniue. This Mr Baughan thinks, was the turning point in Paderewski 's career. Mme. Modjeska has discribed him as a polished and genial companian : a man of wide culture; of witty, sometimes. bit.mg tongue; brilliant in table talk; a man wide awake to all matters of personal interest, who knew and understood the world, but whoee intimacy she and her husband especially prized for the elevation of his character and the refinement of his mind. — The American Tour. — Successful in Paris or London, Paderewski was triumphant in America, where his reception rivalled that of Rubenstein himself, and was finanoially even more brilliant Mr Gorlitz, Pade-ewski's manager, did everything to matt the travelling arrangements as smooth as possible. On one occasion however, their train was delayed by a snowstorm between Toronto and Buffalo. Mr Gorlitz has described the incident : "At 8 there was to be a concert at Buffalo, New York. It was impossible to get there in time, so we telegraphed to inform the audience that if they would wait an hour longer the artist would appear and play his programme through. But the only way for him to accomplish th ; 6 was to dress in the train. When he had deoided to do so it was found that our baggage had been removed into the Customs House; and the Custom House attendants, not knowing the arrival of this train, had gone home. The only poa-

sible way to get at his dress suit was for mo to break open the Custom House window, go in, bring out his dress suit, and lock up the box again. I accomplished this without being detected, and we arrived, finally, at Buffalo in time for the concert." — Personal Traits. — Padereweki seems incapable of taking any form of mental lethargy similar to what the ordinary person means by rest. "If I walk or ride, or merely rest," he says. "I go on thinking all the time, and my nerves get no real rest. But when I play billiards I can forgot everything, and the result is mental rest and physical exerciso combined." To the outside world, in spite of all the anecdotes, Paderewski is s mystery. Only his friends know the man himself: 'The outeide world knows no more than that he is an accomplished 1 linguist and a man of considerable reading and catholic tastes; that he is the soul o£ generosity to those with whom he is acquainted ; that he is an expert billiard player — a. talent he may have learned from his master, Leschetitzky ; that he is a brilliant conversationalist ; that he smokes a great many cigarettes ; and that he is fond of staying up until the early hours of the morning. It is not, perhaps, so generally known that ho is an expert swimmer. With regard to the billiard playing, the pianist once explained to an interviewer the place it takes in the economy of his life. The necessity of practising during his tours for a series of recitals has sometimes meant playing nearly seventeen hours a day, countingthe time taken by the recitals themselves— a circumstance which has often happened during the pianist's American tours; and M. Paderewski confessed it was playing billiards that had saved his life." "Paderowski," said Pachmann, "is the most modest artist that I have ever seen. I myse'f am the most immodest art;st« except Hans yon Bulow."